Marc Benioff waylaid Tim Cook at a party to get him to condemn antigay legislation

Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, speaks at The Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference at the Montage hotel in Laguna Beach, California, on October 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake Salesforce billionaire Marc Benioff has become a loud opponent of state legislation that critics say discriminates against LGBT people.

But he's also become the ringleader to get other CEOs to join him to speak out. This began in Indiana last year, where Salesforce is a major employer, and he succeeded at getting Indiana to modify the law.

He then took on Georgia, where he helped rally business leaders so strongly that the governor vetoed the bill.

Now the fight has moved to North Carolina, with companies like PayPal and Deutsche Bank canceling jobs and expansion plans.

He calls them. He emails them. He throws lavish parties — in March, for instance, he invited CEOs to a sushi dinner at his main San Francisco house, with celebrities like magician David Blaine, and urged them to act against the Georgia law.

Where corporate CEOs once felt compelled to keep mum about polarizing political issues such as gay rights, now they are being cajoled to speak up.